,,,, your realtime captioner is linda marie macdonald. caption colorado, l.l.c. comments@captioncolorado.com there are still flames, it is still smoldering this morning. but this was last night. many of the houses burned in that natural gas explosion in the san bruno neighborhood. three people are dead.

good morning, it's friday, the 10th of september. i'm john kessler. >> i'm sydnie kohara. good morning, everyone. it is 5:00. let's quickly take you to the scene. this is where it all began in san bruno. the crater is filled with water. the natural gas line exploded into flames yesterday evening. our newsroom confirms three people are dead. 53 homes are destroyed. 120 others are damaged. take a look at this map. the fire inside this area of the peninsula, the general perimeter starting at sneath lane and looping around claremont drive and glenview drive. we begin our team coverage with anne makovec in the san bruno neighborhood where it all began. anne, good morning. >> reporter: good morning. i'm off of sneath lane and 280, one of several intersections blocked off this morning by local police officers and the california highway patrol. as you can see here behind me, they have flare patterns, directing all traffic away from

the area. in fact, every entrance into this neighborhood that has been destroyed is blocked off. we drove around the perimeter here near crestmore canyon this morning. and we were turned away at every turn. taking a live look now from chopper 5. above the area. and you can see several fires still burning. people are kept away from the area because it's a dangerous scene. one officer said it's being considered a crime scene, as well. but he can't tell me why exactly it's been dubbed that. the neighborhood again still dangerous as the fire fires continue to burn. rescue crews are scoping out the rest of the damage. here's the scene last night from chopper 5. a huge fireball burning in this neighborhood surrounding glenview, skyline and san bruno avenue. a natural gas explosion leaving a crater in the ground. 53 homes destroyed, 120

damaged. witnesses describe the earth shaking and a loud roar when the explosion happened just after 6:00 p.m. >> we just started to watch the football game on tv, and sitting in the living room and all of a sudden, a real loud boom that shook the house. in fact, i thought there was maybe another two or three booms but it just shook the house. so i immediately jumped out of my chair, ran out the door, and i live just five houses up from the corner here. and looked out into the street and there was a huge fireball right here. this looks like a war zone. i have never seen anything like it in my life. >> reporter: and when it comes to a war zone scene, we are likely going to be a lot better view of that today as rescuers are able to go into the area and as chopper 5 daylight comes up and we can see more of the damage within the next couple of hours. it appears to be a pg&e natural

gas line that exploded. the company says it will take accountability if it's found to be the cause. but the cause of the blast has yet to be determined. >> right now we're not even able to get to the side to look and see what's occurring out there. but in the end i know people want answers. we would love to be able to provide them. but we're going to have to work through the investigation with the officials that are in charge of the investigation to try to get those answers as quickly as possible. >> reporter: one thing sure to be investigated, witnesses have reported overnight a gas smell in the area that has been apparently around for several days according to folks. so that is just one aspect that they will be looking at in the days to come. again, about 100 people evacuated from this neighborhood in san bruno. we are several blocks away from the scene right now. live in san bruno, bracket.

>> thank you. >> simon perez joins from us bayhill shopping center a major gathering spot for the evacuees. >> reporter: good morning. you can see behind me the red cross truck is here. they are certainly helping many of those people who had their homes either completely burned to the ground or had a lot of damage done to it. you can see some of the video there. dozens of homes that burned and more that are damaged. one person confirmed dead and dozens hurt. many people taking themselves to the hospital. some with severe burns, others with smoke inhalation, some in nearby hospital, others as far as san francisco. saint francis burn unit was treating some of the people last night. this is going to be a pretty difficult search operation, certainly not rescue but a search operation as cadaver dogs go through some of the

rubble this morning. mainly, that's because many of the people if there are any left inside pretty much would have been incinerated. this fire was so hot, i was here last night that it just eliminated the houses almost instantly. you see skeletons, chimneys, ironically about the only things left standing sit on the ground n top of foundations. certainly no walls, no doors, no roofs. nothing left. officials say bodies would be difficult to find because they would be reduced to ashes. as far as why the fire was so hot the fire chief in san bruno gives an explanation of how it got so hot and why it was so difficult for them to get in. >> our problem was is obviously it was a high pressure gas line. we could not get close to the line until they could shut down that pipe. currently they are shutting down distribution lines so we still have residual in the gas lines so at the last briefing we still were not able to

access the area fully. >> reporter: certainly driving here this morning you could see a lot of lights zoned in and illuminating the area, the crater left after the explosion so lots of crews going to be down here today trying to sift through the rubble and try to figure out exactly what happened and how it got started. so lots of projects to go onto today. exactly what was the cause of the explosion? are there any people remaining inside? doubtful anybody who was alive didn't get out. trying to find what bodies may be left but getting an official count on how many homes were destroyed. we are talking about a 15-acre area. after sundown it was difficult to see anything. i had a hard time crawling through backyards and fences trying to get down to the ground zero as it were portion of this. so once the sun comes up again,

certainly those rescue crews and the analysis of this will be much easier. >> all right. simon, thank you very much. simon perez in san bruno. and there are quite a few schools that will be closed this morning today. the closures include all the elementary schools in the san bruno park school district. parkside intermediate school will also be closed for the day. however, capuchino high school is going to stay open. it i 5:08. let's check weather and traffic. getting an update, they are continuing to open more roads an off-ramps in the area. northbound 280 at skyline boulevard, the ramp is opened there as well as all of skyline boulevard is now re-opened. so this is not updated here. this is some late breaking information here so all this stretch of skyline boulevard is now completely re-opened between pacifica and san bruno. so really it's only city streets in and around that

neighborhood affected by the gas explosion that are closed right now. we have reporter anne makovec on the scene and she has been showing us some of the roads blocked in that area. but the main lines of the freeway and some of the bigger roads in the area have been re- opened. caltrans says this could change. it's an ongoing thing so for right now just in time for the morning commute, most of our bigger roads have re-opened. that is your traffic. for your forecast, here's tracy. >> hey, thanks, elizabeth. >> last evening a number of people that lived well down to the south of this in sunnyvale were saying how they could smell the smoke associated with that fire in san bruno. for this morning, winds not an issue. light and variable, sea breeze is expected to kick up later on this afternoon with west winds up to 15 miles an hour. plenty of sunshine expected and decent temperatures. mid-80s in concord, 74 oakland, 79 fremont, 85 livermore. closer to the bay, temperatures in the upper 60s.

62 pacifica. mid- to upper 70s in vallejo and san rafael. and the lower 80s today in napa and santa rosa. our seven-day forecast today we warm up slightly from yesterday. and tomorrow, we warm up just a bit more. saturday is expected to be the warmer of the two weekend days. once you peel off into next week that looks good, too. those temperatures are still slightly below average. but plenty of sunshine to go along with it. back to you. >> thank you. what's happened to the people forced to evacuate that neighborhood? up next, we'll take you to one of the evacuation centers where some people have spent the night. and we'll tell you what you can do to help. ,,,,,,,,

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of yesterday's huge gas main explosion over san bruno. i gusoff the phone with caltrans and they are saying all of this entire stretch of skyline boulevard from pacifica to san bruno has re-opened within the last 15 minutes as well as all the on- and off- ramps on 280. we'll have a full look at the commute. traffic in six minutes. >> see you then. thank you. it is 5:13 right now. >> the red cross has set up an emergency shelter for evacuees from that explosion and fire in san bruno. >> julie watts joins us now from one of those shelters this morning. good morning, julie. >> hi there guys. sorry, i'm having a little trouble hearing you. reporter: so we're here at one of the shelters. you can see behind me there is a room full of supplies. there's just been an outpouring of support from the local community everything from food -- we're being told that costco, safe way, local restaurants donating items and, of course, local residents dropping off blankets and clothes and there have been volunteers here all night.

in fact, more volunteers at this shelter than people -- than victims staying here. there are 16 folks here and 6 down the road at a senior center. now i'm here with the community service director of san bruno. i was asking what can folks bring, how can people help? you're stocked here? >> for the moment we're very well stocked. we don't have that many people here now. there are a lot of people out here in the community that may be finding their way over here within the next few hours. >> so what do you want people to know? people sitting at home to want to help or people who are watching maybe staying with a friend and may need services? >> if somebody is out there that's looking for a shelter please come down to the recreation center in city park in san bruno. many of the cities have been helping us out so far and have been offering support. if you are looking for someone,

650-616-7180. we are taking names and looking for -- we're working with the red cross to try and match people up with family and friends. >> reporter: thank you. you can also go to save and well.org. you can look for missing family members. we'll have red cross here and other people here to talk about insurance and things of that nature. >> thank you, julie watts in san bruno. >> looks like a huge outpouring of support all the supplies. coming up next, we'll share some pictures our viewers sent us of the pipeline explosion in san bruno. our forecast, for today things are going to be warming up just a bit. plenty of sunshine is expected. we'll take a look at your weekend forecast, let you know if those warm temperatures will be with us for the next couple

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exactly where this incident happened are still blocked off fire crews putting out the remaining hot spots. the closures are just the smaller city streets in the san bruno area, claremont, glenview and several other streets. let's go to our maps and show you what's been re-opened here. just recently in the last half hour or so, if you are traveling 280 that freeways in the area, 101 and 280 both unaffected. all the on- and off-ramps through san bruno have been re- opened for caltrans. we have been getting continuous updates from them here. and as well as skyline boulevard for a while, skyline boulevard was closed from pacifica near westboro all the way down into san bruno where it meets up with 280 but right now the entire stretch of skyline boulevard has once again re-opened. so the bigger roads in the area just in time for the morning commute are able to take traffic this morning. it's just immediate smaller city streets that remain closed and, you know, they will

likely be closed for a while. that is your traffic. for your forecast, here's tracy. >> hey, thanks, elizabeth. well, winds will definitely be an issue or definitely a concern for this morning because we have light fires in the san bruno area. for the morning, light variable, winds less than 3 miles per hour. so no big deal for the morning. for the afternoon west winds. nice sea breeze coming in up to 15 miles an hour. so your forecast, for today we'll focus on your temperatures. they are warming up a bit. mid-80s in morgan hill. 80 in milpitas. upper 70s in union city and fremont. 78 in palo alto. 77 in mountain view. 79 degrees in sunnyvale. and moving just up the peninsula, 78 in redwood city, 75 in san mateo and the lower to the mid-60s in daly city, pacifica and half moon bay. berkeley 69 slightly warmer than yesterday. 74 in oakland.

77 in san leandro. 87 san ramon, 84 dublin. upper 80s later on this afternoon in antioch and brentwood. north bay location, lower 80s in petaluma, upper 70s san rafael, san anselmo and kentfield and the upper 60s in sausalito and san francisco. our seven-day forecast, today warmer than yesterday. tomorrow, warmer than today. sunday still plenty of sunshine. monday, tuesday, wednesday and even moving into thursday, plenty of sunshine expected but temperatures will start to back off just a bit. that is your weather. back to you. >> thank you. it is 5:21. >> and we continue to follow our major story on the peninsula. let's show you where it all began in san bruno. a natural gas line exploded into flames yesterday evening just around 6:00. we are confirming three people were killed but the search resumes at first light for any others that are unaccounted

for. 53 homes are destroyed. 120 others are damaged. >> we have been getting dozens of photos from viewers who witnessed the explosion. here's a viewer photo sent to us taken on sneath lane and sequoia street sent to us by andrea rodriguez. you can see the smoke rising up over the neighborhood there. another photo sent in, this was taken from lunardi's market at sky crest shopping center that's at san bruno avenue near skyline boulevard. she heard the windows shake loudly when the explosion hit. it is 5:22. there are a number of stories of escapes from the fire. >> coming up next, how one man gets out just before his house burns to the ground. emerging, abou,, ,,,,

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i get to sleep faster, stay asleep and wake refreshed. melt to sleep fast. unisom sleep melts. escaping the flames in san brun quite a few stories are emerging now about people narrowly escaping the flames in that burning neighborhood in san bruno. cbs 5 spoke with rob hensel. his childhood home burned to the ground and his father barely made it out alive. >> my dad had to open up the garage door and drive the car through the flames to get out. the back of the car is melted,

taillight are shrunken in. the butchers all warped up. but number one thing is he is okay. everything else can be replaced. >> reporter: he barely paid it. >> he barely made it. the cars and the clothes on his back. you always think it can never happen to you but it happened. >> an emergency hotline has been set up for fire victims and families worried about their loved ones. anyone who has been affected by this fire and is looking for shelter should call this number: 650-616-7180. the hotline is only for neighbors and those impacted by that fire. a bay area blood center is asking for help as well to help the victims injured by the explosion and the fire. blood centers of the pacific has issued an emergency appeal for blood donations. to donate starting today, please call the number on your screen there: 1-888-393-

give. "o" negative is requested. petco is helping for pets, providing kennels for dogs, cats and food and water. the pet ceo located in the tanforan milwaukee. for more information 650-589- 3757. store is also working with the red cross to transport animals from the fire sites to petco and of course we'll have all these numbers on our website, cbs5.com. and there is a local hotel as well that's opening up its rooms to fire victims free of charge, the alpine inn and suites in daly city offering free rooms to people who need a place to stay and they are at 415-334-6969. our time now 5:27. stay with us as we continue to follow this story. san bruno on the peninsula, a lot of new developments this morning. >> coming up next, we'll take you to the hardest hit area

where the pipeline explosion caused acrider. a crater. >> reporter: live in san bruno outside of the neighborhood that's been devastated, we'll have live pictures and tell you what's going on on the ground right now coming up. i'm simon perez also live in san bruno. we'll tell you about the body count which is expected to go up. ,, our real national pastime? saving money. and like baseball people love their stats. i started bringing my lunch to work -- 50 bucks a week in my pocket. here's a good one:

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tenth of s your realtime captioner is linda marie macdonald. caption colorado, l.l.c. good morning. it is friday, the 10th of september. these are pictures from chopper 5 this morning. still firefighters on the scene in san bruno pouring water on what's left of -- well, you can see just chimneys. 53 homes destroyed, at least 100 others damaged, as well. good morning, i'm john kessler. >> i'm sydnie kohara. good morning, everyone. let's take you to where it all began in san bruno just after 6:00 last night. this is a crater, it's filled with water now but it's the hole where that natural gas line exploded into flames. and this morning, three people are confirmed dead. the search goes on for more victims. no one knows, not everyone is accounted for in that neighborhood. 53 homes are destroyed. 120 others are damaged. and we were just told that the national transportation safety

board is getting in on this investigation. that agency now heading to san bruno to investigate this explosion. >> got amap for you to give you an idea of where this fire was on the peninsula. the general perimeter starts at sneath lane and loops around claremont drive and glenview drive. if you're familiar with the area, if you are driving north on 280 toward san francisco and go past the 380 interchange, that would be the turnoff for the airport -- >> 101, right. >> sfo or to get down to 101. sneath lane is just north of 380 and this area you are seeing on your screen is west of 280. >> and just across the freeway from the golden gate national cemetery. >> anne makovec is in san bruno. that's where the burn area will be searched later on at daybreak. good morning, anne. >> reporter: good morning. a lot of questions about what is in the neighborhood that has

been destroyed, because nobody is being allowed in. if you can see here behind me the area is blocked off. all of the entrances to the neighborhood that's been affected are blocked off with scenes similar to this. police cars and flare patterns all around the perimeter near crestmore canyon. they are turning people around. they say no one is allowed in because this is apparently now called a crime scene. taking a live look above the scene, this is the best look we can get right now. we know that there's going to be a lot of devastation once the sun comes up. 53 homes destroyed, 120 damaged. but it's unclear what other little pieces of the puzzle we will find in there, potentially more bodies. we know that three people have already been found dead. this is the scene from last night from chopper 5. a huge fireball burning in this neighborhood surrounding glenview, skyline and san bruno avenue. a natural gas explosion leaving

a crater in the ground. witnesses describing the earth shaking and loud roar when the explosion happened just after 6:00 p.m. >> sitting in my garage all of a sudden felt a violent shaking. i thought it was the biggest earthquake i eve felt. i ran outside my driveway flames shooting up the street. the heat was so intense, everybody had to run. you couldn't even stay out in front of your house. it looked like something explode on the corner of claremont and glenview. i saw two or three houses just completely incinerated. >> reporter: it appears to be a pg&e natural gas line that exploded. the company says it will take accountability if it's found responsible but they caution that the cause of the blast has yet to be determined. we don't know what the cause of the rupture of one of our gas lines is. it would be speculation to think about what may or may not

have caused it. we do know that we didn't have any crews in the area working in this area. witnesses report a gas smell in the area for several days in advance of this explosion. this is one of many things to be investigated in the days to come. once the sun comes up which will be within the next hour or so, authorities are hoping to get a better look at the scene. also concerns about fires that continue to burn in the area. >> thank you. simon perez joins from us bayhill shopping center where the red cross has set up an operation. simon, do you have an update on the death toll? >> reporter: the number may be as high as 6 people dead but even the people reporting that are saying that the number will

quite likely go even higher at sun-up when crews can sift through the rubble what's left of the ashes of houses in that entire neighborhood. take a look at some of the pictures from last night. you can see the devastation. that's what the search crews will have to figure out how to sift through. they are planning to get cadaver dogs to come through as well because as one emergency official said earlier, any bodies left in there will be reduced to ashes so it will be difficult to find them. dozens of people hurt in this explosion from yesterday. many with burns. some of them with smoke inhalation sent to hospitals all over the peninsula, some of them even making it to burn centers in san francisco. once again, the crews having that hard difficult job once the sun comes up today of not only counting how many more houses perhaps have been damaged but also trying to find bodies of what's left of them

in all of that rubble. as for the survivors, many of them had to just run out with nothing but the clothes on and the red cross is here to try to help those people out. greg smith is with the red cross and he is here to tell us exactly what it is you guys are trying to do. how many people are you trying to help and what are you doing for them? >> we're trying to -- one of the challenges we are going to have is determining how many people actually will require our assistance. but first and foremost we're providing people with a safe place to be. we're providing them with food and hydration, and we're also providing them with crisis counseling. we have licensed and trained volunteer crisis counselors to help people get through the emotional aspect of this. right now we're sheltering 38 people. we have two shelters open. we're prepared to keep those shelters open for as long as we need to and provide services to individuals for as long as that's necessary. >> reporter: what do people do when they have nothing but the shirt, the pants and the shoes that they're wearing? >> well, that's the beauty of the american red cross.

that's why we're here. we're here to provide you with that gap to help you through your recoverry. so if you leave your home with nothing, we can provide you with a safe place to be. we can provide you with a blanket, ultimately help you get some clothing and help you on that path to recovery. >> reporter: the people watching this if they wanted to help what's the one thing they believed do? >> the main thing that they should do, the american red cross and the other agencies, social service agencies that will be helping to support this, they need -- we need your financial help. so the best thing you can do most people think that if you give you give used clothing. that's one way to help. but then that creates another type of -- of disaster in trying to sort through all those clothes. the best thing to do is provide your financial contributions so agencies like the american red cross can have the resources that need to to provide the best and most adequate services for those in need. >> reporter: all right. greg smith here with the american red cross, thanks for joining us this morning. >> thank you very much. >> reporter: thank you. all right. so that's the latest update right now. lots of people to help and as the investigation goes through

once the sun comes up, sydnie, you can be sure there's going to be even more people needing help. >> simon, thanks for the update. simon perez in san bruno. and san bruno city manager connie jackson says the most immediate task is trying to account for all the people who lived in that neighborhood. >> the city organization is fully mobilized to assist residents. our primary concern at this point is identifying and locating all of the residents of the affected area. >> ... in the fire area to register by calling this number: if you lived in the neighborhood or someone staying with you lived in the neighborhood, call this number: the city is trying to account for as many people as possible as the search for more victims begins today. that will certainly aid the rescuers. again, the number to call:

cbs 5 photojournalist don ford was able to get near the spot where the fire started. he says it was a chaotic scene. >> power lines were all down. there's glass and dirt in the street. close to the epicenter where this main ruptured, the -- the -- the energy was so intense that the street has been reduced to nothing but a dirt path now. it's still wide but there is nothing at all left of the asphalt. >> just melted off? >> melted, burned off, straight down to the dirt. so the sidewalks, the three inch thick concrete is buckled up and debris. the intensity of that is something i haven't seen for a long time and i have been shooting news for a long time. >> safety assessment teams will meet at 6:00 this morning to review the damage. to recap of what's happening in san bruno, it was a natural gas line that exploded into flames shortly

after 6:00 yesterday evening. >> at least three people have been confirmed dead. the search teams though are going through the rubble this morning at first light. dozens of people were injured. several of them, we understand are in critical condition. 53 homes were destroyed. 120 others are damaged. the exact cause of the explosion not yet known. people in the area though told cbs 5 that they had noticed a gas odor for several days before the explosion. >> and this morning, acting governor abel maldonado is going to tour the disaster area. governor schwarzenegger is in asia. abel maldonado has already declared state of emergency in san mateo county. and people who live in that fire area are being asked to contact san bruno officials, who are trying to account for everyone. all san bruno park elementary schools and parkside junior high are closed but capuchino high school will be open. and blood donations are being sought for victims of the

explosion. so that is a recap of what's happening in san bruno. >> several streets are closed in the area mostly surface streets. elizabeth has the explanation. >> good morning. as far as the traffic impact goes, it's just local city streets. claremont, glenview drive, other city streets in the area, those are all closed. it's just west of the 280 freeway. all the off-ramps from 280 are open. traffic is unimpacted on the freeways. we have seen a few slower sensors so maybe 101 is a better option once the commute gets under way. we are likely going to see a lot of spectator slowing especially through san bruno. all the off rashes are re- opened. they have been re-opening them slowly over the last hour or so as well as skyline boulevard.

that was our largest road closure in the area. at one point it was closed from pacifica down into san bruno. but right now the entire stretch is re-opened to traffic after a nine hour closure. we'll have more traffic information coming up. in the meantime tracy has been busy checking wind conditions overnight and into the morning. >> that's right, elizabeth. last night winds up to 22 miles per hour. but they have definitely calmed down for the early morning. light variable winds and you can take a look there and see that winds shifting from calm to two to around three miles an hour. for the afternoon, winds will be picking up as a sea breeze kicks in out of the west up to 15 miles an hour. conditions later on today plenty of sunshine is expected and temperatures will be warming up. mid-80s in concord as well as in livermore. mid- to upper 70s in oakland and fremont. 81 degrees in san jose. 78 degrees in redwood city. 69 in san francisco. north bay locations, 76 in vallejo, 78 in san len ramirez

san rafael. tomorrow we warm up. nice weekend for the bay area. monday, tuesday, wednesday and thursday, temperatures back to below seasonal highs. but still loads of sunshine. that is your weather. back to you. >> thank you. an emergency shelter has been set up for evacuees in san bruno. julie watts was there shortly after the explosion hit last night and she is at the emergency shelter this morning. julie, good morning. where exactly is this shelter. >> reporter: this shelter is -- you know what? the name of the street escaped me now but i'll tell you that in a second. first i'll i'll tell you what's going on. there's been an outpouring of support people coming from all over the bay area to this shelter. donation everything from water to food. there have been volunteers all night long sorting out clothes for people who are evacuated.

there are 27 people at this shelter and there are about 6 down the road at a nearby senior center. and actually i'm here with the public information officer from the red cross. they were just asking me where exactly are we. we have been a lot of places over the last couple of days. >> we are at 251 park -- [ laughter ] >> city parkway. >> sorry it's been a long night. >> reporter: we have been covering this since last night, as well. tell us about what's going on here over the last 12 hours or so. >> okay. well, as normally happens in a case of a major disaster of any type like this, the city asks us to open a city shelter. we are operating it for them. as quickly as we can we bring in trailers and unload our stuff. our trailers are set up to

handle 100 beds, blankets, all that kind of thing and we can bring in more trailers if we need them. last night we actually only had 12 people who stayed in our shelter but we have had over 100 people who were affected by the disaster who actually registered with us. >> reporter: so those are the first time we have had actual numbers of how many people have registered. so you're saying we now know there are 100 people impacted with the disaster and registered with the red cross? >> there might well be other people who sought assistance other places. they may have stayed with relatives or gone to a hotel didn't need our assistance but we're certainly here firefighter they do. >> reporter: for those who still need assistance they can come down here this morning. they are providing breakfast at 8:00 and providing city services and red cross services. obviously donations down here -- although the red cross is saying please don't bring more donations down here. if people want to donate, they can donate money. how do they make sure that money goes to this cause for the red cross? >> if you donate money, you can mark it on the check or whatever asking that it be used

for this particular purpose. we generally prefer that we have just a general donation that we can use for whatever is going on at the time. you never know by the time we get money in hand there could be something else going on. we also urge your viewers to consider donating blood. we do have blood centers around the area. it's a good idea to call and make an appointment so you don't have to wait. it's an easy process. i have done it myself. and it's certainly a worthwhile thing to do. >> thank you so much for chatting with us this morning. we appreciate it. back to you, sydnie and john. >> thank you, julie watts in san bruno. very good information. a lot of people want to help. quite a few schools in san bruno will be closed today. those closures include all elementary schools in the san bruno park school district. parkside intermediate school will also be closed for the day. but we do want to let new that capuchino high school will remain open. it's 5:47. back out to chopper 5. over that neighborhood in san bruno,

we do invite you to stay with us. we are getting a lot more information into the newsroom and we'll keep you posted. ,,,,,, as governor, he cut waste got rid of the mansion and the limo budgets were balanced. $4 billion in tax cuts. world class schools and universities. clean energy promoted. 1.9 million new jobs created. california was working. i'm jerry brown. california needs major changes.

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it is 5:50. >> these are pictures from chopper 5 this morning as we take a look at the devastation from that gas explosion in san bruno happened just after 6:00 last night. instantly 53 homes up in flames. three people confirmed dead. the death toll is expected to rise. the national transportation safety board headed to the neighborhood. retired contra costa county fire battalion chief dave

george is on the phone to talk about how this fire may have spread so quickly. dave, thanks for joining us. we have noticed -- i mean, the explosion happened in one specific area. but yet the fire spread out. >> it seems like the houses were up in flames instantly. >> how could that happen? >> well, that's always a great question to ask because these kinds of fires are so unusual, they really -- they really do not behave in many of the same ways we're accustomed to seeing. probably the main reason is that there's a couple of different factors that influenced it. just like a wild land fire, you always have the wind. the wind that was just out there to begin with does help to move that fire. but project the main thing is the radiant heat. once one house gets going and if it's completely involved, it's almost impossible to describe how hot it can be so

close to the other houses in the area once you have cars that are on fire, they can spread the radiant heat to cars nearby. it just becomes exponentially greater and greater the more heat and house that are generated and that's probably one of the first things that people are -- hard -- you can see the flames, you can see what it's doing but it's hard to even cite inturbulence heat that occurs in situation like this. >> we talk to somebody whose father had to drive through flames to get out of the garage talking about melted bumpers and such on the car. in cases like this we know that the winds were not really a factor, but what do you face when you try to fight a fire like this? >> well, as your shots are showing that you see right there you face a lot of different things. first of all, the firefighters are faced with okay, we have

people calling on 911 calls. we have to get out trapped people so resources are taxed there. power lines down at eye level where you can't get the rigs in close enough to even get the water on the fire. you'll have in wild land situations when they are bumped up against the wild land area, it's not uncommon to have animals and other types of stuff running at you when you're trying to run toward the fire. they may have been taxed with other problems that we'll find out at later times. they may have had access problems. there may have been -- i noticed in just looking at it that many of the houses were of course accessible by roads but the open area there that was a challenging area to get to and thankfully they had the cdf aircraft to put that -- to get there, as well. they may have had water challenges, as well. there may have been challengings to get the hoses on the ground because in radiant situation, heat situations like that, it's possible to lay your hoses on the ground get ready for the

firefight only to find that the fire has advanced so rapidly that the hoses have been burned or you can't get to the hydrant to turn it on. these situations are -- they exponentially get more and more dangerous as they go on until you can get to a point where you can see we have a good defense system we have people in plays where we can hit it and now we can make an attack on it. >> how hot does it have to get to burn a hose? >> well, we have -- in wild land situations, it's not that uncommon at all. in fact, firefighters often times will have the hoses along the fire trails and if the fire is right next to it, if the fire is on or very nearby the hose the hose will catch fire and then of course i bursts, another problem. >> thank you, contra costa fire battalion chief dave george, thank you for the explanation of what might have happened and

how they are fighting this. we appreciate you talking to us this morning. thanks very much. >> thank you, chief. it is 5:54. we'll be right back. hi! welcome to progressive.com. come on in, and i'll give you a free quote. quote and compare in about 8 minutes. now, that's progressive. call or click today. you inhale, they inhale. millions of children continue to be exposed to secondhand smoke. secondhand smoke causes asthma, a disease that cannot be cured. protect your loved ones. [ male announcer ] it's luxury with fire in its veins.

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when some vets were forced to travel hours for care, mcnerney fought for a new v.a. medical facility, and won. mcnerney took on washington gridlock, to improve care for vets with traumatic brain injuries. his plan became law. that's why vfw state commander dave norris endorsed mcnerney. i'm jerry mcnerney, and i'm honored to approve this message. thanks, dad. solved welcome back. we are going welcome back. city streets are impacted by the gas main explosion west of the 280 freeway claremont drive and glenview drive. of course that area surrounded by many other city streets. caltrans says it will be like an ongoing through, closures and roadblocks. it's surrounded by sneath,

claremont and skyline boulevard. it's just in time for the morning commute all the on- and off-ramps to 280 are open as well as skyline boulevard. that is your traffic. for your forecast, here's tracy. >> hey, thanks, elizabeth. weather-wise, we have sunrise at 6:47. and we're also expecting winds to be fairly light for this morning. light and variable. for the afternoon, winds will be kicking up a bit out of the west up to 15 miles an hour. conditions for later on today, seven-day forecast, highs inland in the upper 80s. that's warmer than yesterday. 70 degrees around the bay and the mid-60s at the coast. tomorrow, we warm up just a bit more and saturday is expected to be the warmer of the two weekend days. monday, tuesday, wednesday and thursday, still expecting plenty of sunshine but temperatures will start to cool down ever so slightly. that's a look at your weather. back up to you. >> thank you. it is 5:58. coming up in our next half hour, we are going to talk live with pg&e to get an update on the power problems in san bruno. and i'm live outside the

neighborhood that has been destroyed and is now blocked off. i just spoke with some people desperate to see if their home is still standing. we'll hear from them coming up. ,, not that long ago, many families were priced out of an overheated housing market. but the times have changed. get the facts at remax.com. today, the dream of owning a home seems more attainable than ever. nobody sells more real estate than re/max.